


Stabat (Sorrowing)

by mochiboom



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, Pre-Relationship, The Great and the Good, but it's ambiguous, ehhhhhhh i can't call it gen not really, just like our dear DS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-23
Updated: 2013-03-23
Packaged: 2017-12-06 06:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/732572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochiboom/pseuds/mochiboom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hathway always sees. He may not say anything, but he always, always sees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stabat (Sorrowing)

**Author's Note:**

> The Great and the Good was on tv tonight and it gave me some really intense feels.  
> So I vomited them out here.  
> Title taken from Stabat Mater Dolorosa, because I can't listen to classical music without thinking of Hathaway.

Hathaway’s not so dense when it comes to his DI as the rest of the station would believe. Cooper’s cryptic letter still plays on Lewis’ mind; Hathaway doesn’t comment, but he knows and he watches.

 

If he refills Lewis’ mug twice without being asked, well, he’s just in a charitable mood.

 

Once the case is wrapped, Lewis disappears. Innocent eyes Hathaway where she’s talking to a news reporter; Hathaway doesn’t need to be told, he already knows where Robbie’ll be.

 

He does break a few minor traffic laws trying to get to the old house across from Cooper’s residence. He trusts Innocent to take care of it, as much as he hates some of the privileges that being part of one of the best partnerships in the Oxford police brings. When he pulls up outside the battered green door, as expected, Lewis’ car is already there.

 

He fiddles with his box of fags for a second, before getting out of his car, absently locking it behind him as he walks up the steps and pushes open the door. The house is dark, but there’re footprints tracked through the carpet of dust on the floor and Hathaway follows them quietly, willing the floor not to creak and betray him.

 

The reinforced door to Cooper’s secret base of operations lies wide open, light spilling out into the corridor. Hathaway catches sight of Lewis where he sits on the floor, surrounded by all manner of newspaper clippings, printed sheets of paper, charts and tables. He watches as Lewis runs a weary hand over his face, as he pinches the bridge of his nose and his shoulders slump with a sigh. Mourning is written in every line, every bone of Robbie's body; time does not heal all wounds and Robbie's is so grievous that it's likely the pain will never really go away.

 

Hathaway startles himself with the loudness of his voice.

“Let it _go_.” He says with conviction, but knowing full well Lewis can do no such thing. Old wounds have been reopened, and it will take more than Hathaway can give to force them closed again. He nearly leaves; he nearly turns around and leaves Robbie to his fruitless, painful investigations of trails that have long gone cold. He so easily could; Robbie wouldn’t begrudge him for it, wouldn’t even mention it.

 

But he doesn’t.

 

Instead he shrugs off his jacket, sits down next to his DI, picks up a folder and starts looking through reams of police reports. Lewis doesn’t say anything; doesn’t even glance at him, but Hathaway can tell in the ease of his shoulders, in the softening of the lines on Lewis’ face, that Hathaway’s actions mean more to Robbie than the man can put into words.

 

Hathaway twitches back a smile and swallows harshly. _I won’t watch you do this to yourself_ , he’d said. _No,_ he thinks, _I’m not letting this drag you down alone. If you go I go, and I have no intention of going anywhere. Not after what you’ve don’t for me._

Lewis saved him from himself before, from that past life fraught with fire and a pain that wouldn’t ease. Now it’s Hathaway’s turn to do the same.


End file.
